Science Section 4 Flashcards
What is the green algal called?
Cyanobacteria
The green algal carries out photosynthesis providing energy to what 2 organisms?
The algal and the fungal part of the lichen
What is a power grid?
A large, somewhat amorphous delivery system.
What does the power grid do?
The grid loosely connects the power plants to one another and to all the homes in a given area.
What was covered by sediments Between 160 million and 400 million years ago?
Tropical plants growing in swamps and marshes.
What is petroleum?
The mixture of hydrocarbons, water and, usually, sulfur that occurs in underground deposits.
What did petroleum form from?
The remains of ocean-dwelling plankton that were preserved roughly 65 to 250 million years ago.
What is the remaining product from removing the natural gas from petroleum and leaving only the oil?
Liquid petroleum other known as crude oil.
How much natural gas is methane?
80 to 95 percent.
What does hydraulic fracturing do?
Extracts previously untapped oil and natural gas reserves.
What does hydraulic fracturing involve?
Injecting high-pressure streams of water, sand and chemicals into bedrock to create fractures in the rock formation to extract trapped oil and gas.
What does the fluid used to “frack” the bedrock contain?
Chemicals such as methanol, ethylene glycol, and propargyl alcohol that are hazardous to human health.
How much water has been used during large scale fracking operations since 2011?
About 1.5 trillion gallons of water since 2011.
Is nuclear power usage in the United States supported by the public?
No, protesters use the three accidents that have happened in parts of the world as their support
Describe the first nuclear accident that happened in March 28, 1979, that caused the public to be deeply concerned with the safety of nuclear power plants and people began to make early assumptions about their risks
a small amount of radiation was released from thee Three Mile Island Plant in Pennsylvania as a result of the nuclear core overheating and suffering some damage caused by a cooling water valve being closed (which prevented the core from staying cool). This was caused by human error.
What movie was coincidentally released before the accident at the Three Mile Island plant?
The China Syndrome (which is about when a nuclear plant suffers a major “meltdown” causing widespread anger and fear)
Was the nuclear power plant accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine the result of a natural disaster damaging the plant?
No, this nuclear accident was caused by operaters purposefully disconnected emergency cooling systems and removed control rods which caused the nuclear reactions during the special test to overheat. As a result the plant exploded causing several fires that were made worse since the control rods were made of flammable graphite (not water control rods). It is characterized as being a “runaway” reactor incident.
What were the casualties of the explosion at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine?
31 plant workers and firefighter died immediately of acute radiation exposure and hundreds to thousands died over a longer period of time due to the radiation exposure
What natural disaster caused flooding to the reactors of the Fukushima nuclear power plant (located on the main island of Honshu, Japan) in March 2011?
an earthquake (that killed over 18,000 people)
What were the effects of the radioactive leakage of the Fukushima nuclear power plant whose reactors were damaged by flooding caused by a major earthquake? (effect on land and people)
forced more than 150,000 people to evacuate and caused the area around the nuclear plant to be off limits for the next FORTY YEARS to finish the decontamination work
What are the three types of radioactive waste produced from a nuclear power plant classified as?
1). high-level waste from spent (no longer usable) fuel rods 2). low-level waste from contaminated maintenance materials 3). the uranium residue that is left over after uranium mining and enrichment
What is the most dangerous type of radioactive waste that also has to be handled with the most care when disposing?
spent fuel rods
What does “spent” mean when describing nuclear fuel rods? Are they still radioactive?
that the rods no longer have enough fuel left to produce enough heat to effectively generate electricity. The rods still have highly radioactive fission fragments meaning that they are still a threat to biotic life for tens of thousands of years
How are spent nuclear fuel rods disposed considering they are still highly reactive?
in pools of water at least 20 feet deep (act as a shield against radiation) afterwards they are then moved to onsite cement storage containers (AKA a dry cask storage) which can hold 2-6 dozen rod assemblies each
True or False? The U.S. Department of Energy found a place in the U.S. to be a long term repository for spent nuclear fuel?
False. In 1978, the department thought that a site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada (~hundred miles from Las Vegas) however protests from the Western Shoshone people who claim the area is sacred to their culture, political pressure from Nevada, and the uncertainty if the land was stable enough to contain the radiation for thousands of years has prevented a repository from being constructed. As of 2023, the plan to do build has ended.
Is the use of fossil fuels sustainable?
No, because there no real inputs currently of coal, oil, or natural gas being replenished (not for another million years) even though there are many outputs of human energy
What type of sources is sustainable energy use based on? Some examples?
renewable energy sources (they cannot be depleted) such as the Sun and wind
Are biofuels like wood an example of a renewable energy source or a potentially renewable energy source? Why?
potentially renewable because their resources are finite but if their use (outputs) is balanced by the creation of new resources (inputs) then it can be sustainable
How is water- and wind-based energy sources considered forms of indirect solar energy?
because it is the sun that heats the Earth unevenly which causes air to move to and from different locations creating wind. For water, the sun evaporates the water, where it moves from land to the atmosphere as it falls to the ground as precipitation to supply rivers and streams providing hydrologic power
Name the three significant sources of energy that are not solar based
nuclear, geothermal, and tidal
How is the solar constant different from the solar potential?
the solar constant is the amount of solar energy that reaches the top of Earth’s atmosphere (roughly 1370 watts per square meter each day). The solar potential is the energy that is potentially available for use by people
Is the solar potential equal to the solar constant?
No, because Earth’s atmosphere reflects and absorbs a good fraction of the solar constant energy which leaves 200 watts (give or take 50 and 300 watts depending on the location and time of year) to arrive at the Earth’s surface near the equator
Where in the United States is solar potential the greatest?
the Southwest with solar energy available at least 90% of the time
What is passive solar?
refers to the collection of solar energy directly from the rays of the Sun without an intermediate technology (such as a pump or blower). This includes home heating with thermal inertia and cooking
What are the two main applications that active solar energy is used for?
heating hot water and generating electricity
Where is the Andosol solar power station located? (what country?)
Spain
How can energy from the sun be directly converted to electrical energy? And how?
with a photovoltaic solar cell which are made of silicon dioxide (SiO2) combined with a small amount of metal (like arsenic and antimony) to increase voltage output
What compound is found in photovoltaic solar cells and generates an electrical current when exposed to direct sunlight (if it is found in very small and ultra clean layers)?
silicon dioxide (SiO2)
How many watts of energy does one individual photovoltaic cell produce?
about one or two watts which is why normally 24+ cells are joined together and mounted on rooftops of buildings
How tall is a contemporary wind turbine? And the length of its blades?
~100 meters, with blades 40 to 75 meters long
How many homes can a wind turbine power in the U.S. if it generates over 843,000 kWh per month?
940 average U.S. homes
How many offshore wind turbine farms are located in Northern Europe?
at least 40 (over two thousand total wind turbines)
Lichens are indicators of changes in the levels and ecosystems of what?
Sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, and toxic metals
Where do you find lichens?
Rocks, and trees
What are a complex sybiosis between two seperate organisms?
linchens
Where do you find Cyanobacteria?
fungal filaments
What does Cyanobacteria do?
carry out photosynthesis, providing energy to linchens
What year did the lead levels increase the most?
1970s
Linchens can be used as what?
pollution monitors
The absence of a lichen species in regions where it once existed can indicate what?
that pollutants have increased to levels intolerable for that species
What will linchens rapidly accumulate into their tissue?
pollutants
What is a sensitive bioassay?
use of an organism to measure levels of chemicals
What is one of the most polluted regions in the world?
South Ural Mountains of Russia,
Who used lichens to monitor a major point source of gaseous?
A team of environmental scientists, led by O. William Purvis
To see where the levels of pollutants were highest relative to the emissions source, what did Purvis and his colleagues do?
transplanted over six hundred lichens from a nonpolluted area upwind of the smelter to areas at various distances downwind.
After how many months did hey collected the transplants along with samples of native lichens?
two and three months
The results of the analyses showed that significant levels of what pollutants were found in both the transplanted
and the native lichens?
lead, zinc, uranium, and particulates, such as coal dust,
the closer the transplanted species of lichen were to the smelter, the more likely they were to what?
to exhibit tissue damage
Environmental science was used in the development of what
regulation?
U.S. Clean Air Act (CAA) of 1970
What like most of the oceans, is considered a global commons that is protected by governments?
Atmosphere
What are the six most common and widely harmful air pollutants?
sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, lead,
particulate matter, and ground-level ozone.
What element is SO2
Sulfur dioxide
How is SO2 released
in nature by volcanic eruptions and by humans
All living things contain various amounts of what?
sulfur
What is N2?
nitrogen gas
What is a nonrenewable fuel
fuels that have a finite present on earth, within the context of a thousand years
What is the energy efficiency of older coal plants
36%
How many BTU of energy did the USA use in 2022
100.4 quadriain BTU’s
What fuel did USA use to make the majority of there energy.
petroleum
What did a majority of the USA’s energy go to
Transportation
How many bundles of fuel rods might a typical nuclear reactor contain?
75 to 100
What are the ups and downs of using nuclear power?
It is a relatively clean means of electricity however it produces radioactive waste.
How many pounds of uranium must be mined to produce seven pounds of uranium oxide for nuclear fuel?
As much as two thousand pounds.
What is a fission reaction?
When an atom is spilts and a small amount of heat is given off.
What is currently the greatest energy source in the United States?
Petroleum.
What are the two general ways that coal is mined?
Deep shaft mining and surface mining.
What happens during deep shaft mining?
Tunnels are dug into the Earth, perhaps as deep as 200 feet, and people descend into the shafts, dislodge the coal, and bring it to the surface.
What can be a result of coal extraction?
Coal extraction can result in the emissions of several harmful air pollutants, including sulfur dioxides, particulate matter, and mercury, and mining degrades water quality of nearby streams, creating an environmental problem called acid mine dranage.
What is ideal for the generation of electricity and for industrial processes and why?
Because coal is very dense and plentiful, it is ideal for the generation of electricity and for industrial processes such as making steel.
What are some kinetic energy sources?
Steam, combustion gases, flowing water, wind.
How do consumers get electricity?
The kinetic energy sources go through a rotor then go through a rotor shaft which goes into a stator which then gives energy to consumers.
What are the different types of coal?
Peat, lignite, bituminous coal, and anthracite.
Where can uranium be found in?
It can be found in relatively small concentrations in a wide variety of rocks, including shale and sandstone.
What are two places where commercial operations mine uranium for nuclear fuel?
The western U.S. and parts of Canada.
What way of transportation used the most fuel per person
Transit rail
what percentage of the US power sector electricity went away due to energy loss
65%
How many kilowatt hours did the USA make in 2022
4.2 trillion
Which of the USA’s fuel sources made the least Kilowatt hours in 2022
petroleum
Which of the USA’s fuel sources made the most Kilowatt hours in 2022
natural gas
True or false. fuels that make the most energy for a country also make the most electricity for that country
False
how much of consumer energy is accounted for by transportation
36%
What is the energy efficiency of newer coal plants
42%
what dose energy efficiency mean
how efficient it is in transforming from one energy form to another
What is the estimate for the global energy efficiency
36%
What counts for two thirds of the oil use in the world
transportation
What is the average mile per gallon for cars in the united states
25 miles per gallon
why cant energy efficiency be 100%
because of newtons second laws of thermodynamics. all energy will have some part converted to heat, sound, and or any other biproduct
What is a primary energy source
A energy source that was created directly from the source
What is a secondary energy source
A energy source that was changed to another energy source, before its used. ex. electricity
what percentage of the US energy is made of renewable energy
21.50%
What renewable energy generate the most electricity
wind
What is the first step to turn any fuel source into electricity
using the fuel source to spin a turbine
How many acres does a utility-scale solar facility require per megawatt output?
3.5 to 16.5 acres
What are the downsides of solar and wind energies?
Neither the sun rays nor the wind are always available. In this case energy is required to be stored so electricity can be depend on this sources but the batteries that power it are expensive and it’s production requires miming, ending in environmental harm, Furthermore a new step is added to the production of energy resulting in loss of energy.
What was the argument on the proposal for putting windmills of the Cape Cod in Nantucket in 2003?
Some opponents of the project asked why a private company had the right to profit from wind blowing across the ocean, in a public space. They maintained that wind is public, and no individual or corporation has the right to capture it, convert it, and sell it for profit. Another objection was that the windmills would be unsightly and destroy the view from many towns along Cape Cod and Nantucket.
What concept did people in favor of the windmills of the Cape Cod in Nantucket in 2003 came up with?
Proponents of the project accused the opponents, a number of whom were wealthy celebrities, of NIMBY (not in my backyard) behavior at the expense of much needed clean electricity for many people.
How many birds are estimated to die from windmills due to collision each year?
An estimated of 10,000 to 40,000 birds die each year because of windmills.
What is one objection regarding possibilities of constructing off shore wind farms?
They might obstruct migratory pats and endangered whales off the New England coast.
What percentage of the total renewable energy does Hydropower currently accounts for?
Hydropower accounts for 28.7 percent of the total renewable electricity.
What percentage of the total electricity generated in the U.S. does Hydropower account for?
Hydropower accounts for 6.2 percent of the total electricity generated in the U.S.
How does a run-of-the-river work?
Water is diverted from a river, passed through a narrow channel, and directed toward a turbine. After the water goes through the turbine, it is returned to the river.
In hydroelectrical power, what type of energy does a turbine transform into electrical energy?
As water falls over a vertical distance, the potential energy stored is released as kinetic energy. A hydroelectric power plant captures this kinetic energy and uses it to turn a turbine. The turbine transforms the kinetic energy into electrical energy.
What is the peak generating production for run-of-the-river?
It generates around one megawatt at peak capacity, enough to supply electricity to about a thousand homes.
Why does run-of-the-river energy generation varies during the year?
Run-of-the-river electricity generation is dependent on natural water flow, which means that supply is variable during the year, limiting its usefulness during the dry summer months, when electricity demands are at their highest.
What are fish ladders?
A series of pools and pipes designed like ascending steps that allow fish to travel upstream around a hydro dam.
What is water impoundment?
Water storage in a reservoir behind a dam.
How many watts can the water impoundment from Hydro Quebec dams in Canada generate at peak?
Hydro Quebec dams near James Bay, Canada, can generate 7,300 MW at peak.
What are the downsides of water impoundment?
Areas of land are flooded. Which results in the loss of hundreds of square miles of forest, rich bottom land ideal for agriculture, canyons that have great aesthetic or archeological value, or wild river recreation. Ecological communities are lost, and people are often displaced from their homes, communities,
and livelihoods.
How many people were displaced because of the Three Gorges Dam in China?
Three Gorges Dam in China forced over 1.3 million people to abandon their home.
What can elemental mercury convert to when it is in Hydro dams?
Hydro dams can create the conditions for the mercury to be converted from elemental mercury, which is relatively harmless in ecosystems, to methyl mercury, which concentrates in fatty tissue and bioaccumulates in fish and ultimately humans, potentially causing serious health problems.
What does MSW stand for (Biomass related)?
Municipal solid waste (MSW)
What are waste-to-energy facilities?
Incinerators that burns organic waste and uses the heat generated to produce commercial energy.
What percentage of renewable energy does biomass account for in the U.S.?
Together, the variety of biomass products accounts for roughly 37 percent of all renewable energy consumed in the U.S.
Where does ethanol come from?
Methanol is fermented Corn.
What fraction of biomass comes from wood products in the U.S.?
Roughly two-thirds of the biomass energy used in the U.S. comes from wood products.
What fraction of biomass comes from MSW in the U.S.?
Almost one-quarter comes from MSW.
What is the most common source of biomass energy in many countries (especially developing countries)?
In many parts of the world, especially developing countries, animal dung is the most common source of biomass energy.
